Ukraine's Black Secret By Dr Cheryl Diane Parkinson

Ukraine's Black Secret

Most would agree that there isn’t much in this world more beautiful than an innocent new-born baby. Although not all hold this view. Babies and children are abandoned every day. Sometimes simply because they are girls. This is rooted in a cultural bias against girls whose dowries are costly, but sometimes, as in Ukraine’s situation, it is because these children are black. 

There are 750 orphanages all over Ukraine with about 10,000 children leaving every year to live with new families. With the invasion of Russia, the innocence of children and how they are affected is highlighted. Mainstream news outlets tell the story of Ukrainian children travelling more than 800 miles across a war zone to an orphanage in Lviv, for refuge. (Gallagher, Ian. Daily Mail. 06.03.22) Ukrainian orphans are ‘fleeing Russian onslaught heading for Poland and Israel’. (Hope, Russell. Sky News. 06.03.22.) Orphanages are under pressure to keep children safe during the chaos of this conflict.

"I feel so sorry for these children, they are so young. Putin is saying that he is doing something here, but he is simply killing people," says orphanage director Olha Kycher.

And the public empathise. This is demonstrative in the global outpouring of love and support from society through mediums such as: television stations; charities; schools; businesses; supermarkets; libraries; as well as governments across the globe. It is prudent to mention that there was not this cascade of care and support for other war torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. However, regardless of the level of support from Ukrainian people, there seems to be no information on the black Ukrainians. 

Unknown to most people, Ukraine has orphanages filled with unwanted mixed heritage children - hidden away. Unclaimed and unloved by the country they were born into. This idea of hidden black children isn’t a new one. Many remember the ‘the brown babies’ during World War II. (Jones, Charlie. BBC - 2019.) It is documented that approximately 2,000 dual heritage children were born to white British women and black American GIs - the ‘brown babies who were left behind’ went on to have ‘troubled childhoods’. It could be suggested that this ‘troubled childhood’ occurred because they were so openly unwanted by society. Rather than the implication that their blackness itself caused the issues.

The news that is currently streaming out of Ukraine is, understandably, about missile strikes in cities; the advancing Russian Army; the list of casualties; Russian claiming Ukrainian territories; the Ukrainian push back and to some extent, the treatment of people of colour by white Ukraine at the borders. Nothing about the black orphans. The people of colour trying to cross the border are very much foreigners. Not Ukrainians. However, despite what mainstream media’s lack of coverage, the foreign students are not the only people of colour in Ukraine. 

One story of an orphanage in Ukraine has, unusually, been in the limelight a few years ago and was the focus of a film: "Family Portrait in Black and White" by the Russian/Canadian Filmmaker Julia Ivanova. The film details how tough these children’s lives are and the level of hate they face on a daily basis from individuals that do not like them because of their skin. During the film, a white individual intimidates the black children on camera, threatening to “get you bastards”. One of the young black orphans interviewed comments that “there are mean people [here], skinheads”. “They don’t like dark-skinned people”. Another interview with a white woman comments about the plight of these black children in the Ukraine. 

“I feel sorry for the black children. They are outsiders. Even the other children don’t want to play with them”.

Olga Nenya, a white Ukrainian, is seen in this film raising sixteen black orphans in this hostile environment of white Nazi’s and the rest of the population, arguably ‘white moderates’. The reality of growing up as a black child in Eastern Europe is an extremely difficult one. These children are abandoned three times: by their black fathers - who are largely exchange students from East Africa; their white mothers and by the Ukrainian society. 

Ukraine, previously a part of the Soviet Union, has inherited the stigma of mixed relationships as well as children born from these unions. Olga Nenya, rightly or wrongly, collects these children that have been left in orphanages all over Ukraine, so that they can live together with her and be a support to each other. Despite there being issues, and despite not all the children being happy with her, she takes care of them.

In Putin’s reasoning for the invasion of Ukraine, he identified this Nazi problem. He argues he is attempting to ‘protect the people,’ that his “special military operation [was] to de-militarise and de-Nazify Ukraine”. However, this is just propaganda. 

It is common knowledge that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is himself Jewish and has said that members of his family were killed during World War II. Russia also has a history of labelling its enemies as ‘Nazi’ and so on face value, one may be sceptical. However, what is clear is that Ukraine does have a genuine Nazi issue.

The capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, has far-right vigilantes who operate at times, with the approval of the law enforcement. The group Azov, estimated at around 900, are ‘ultra-nationalists and accused of harbouring neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology.’ They are also the group that are doing much of the fighting against Putin for Ukraine.

A recent video shared by The National Guard of Ukraine, has been tweeted showing Azov fighters placing pig fat on their bullets to be used against Muslim Chechens (Russian Muslims) deployed to Ukraine as Russia steps up its assault. This group, Azov, has also been involved in training civilians through military exercises to prepare for the Russian invasion. It is this group, and others like it that are a part of daily life for the Ukrainian people and help shape and grow racist attitudes towards people of colour in Ukraine and around the world.

The filmmakers of "Family Portrait in Black and White" interviewed Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. White supremacists are recorded joking about having ‘evening raids’ and how the authorities let them do it. The prosecutors in Ukraine do not give strict sentences for racially motivated crimes, and so people get away for beating black people nearly to death. The Ukrainian system is failing to protect its black inhabitants. It appears that there is a very real threat of being a person of colour and living in the Ukraine. It could be fatal.

Mainstream media do not cover stories of these black children. Olga and her story was in 2011. With the outbreak of the war, there is little to no information of where these and other black children are, and what, if any help these children are receiving to keep them safe. There is a distinct and obvious void of information. The government itself refuses to acknowledge or support these children, their blackness being the primary factor for this level of invisibility. 

This Ukrainian war has been described by many as a war that has nothing to do with them. Some black people see this as a ‘white war’, however there is an alternative interpretation. ‘Race’ is a social construct, not a biological one - i.e. there is no biological thing such as race. According to scientists at Pennsylvania State University, tens of thousands of years ago, everyone was brown skinned. White people came to be because of an evolutional component that is known as genetic mutation. All life originated in Africa, the original garden of Eden. These Africans began migrating from Africa 20,000 to 50,000 years ago and it was during this time that a ‘skin-whitening mutation appeared randomly in a sole individual.’ (2005 Penn State Study.) The study of these origins suggest there is just one human race, so a war initiated by Putin, involves all humans. 

This world is shared. Can a ‘blind eye’ be turned to a ‘white man's war?’ Putin at times has been compared to Hitler. He is not Hitler, yet, some of his methods are reminiscent of tactics Hitler himself used. 

‘It’s called “salami slicing.” Using a toolbox of threats, coercive diplomacy, military force and occasionally seduction, Putin, like Hitler, wants to change the European status quo.’ (Melman, Yossi. 27.02.22)

Should Hitler have won, one could argue that he would have posed a threat to the rest of the free world. The question must be asked: Does Putin pose that same threat? If he defeats Ukraine, will he be tempted to stretch his reach that little bit further into Moldova from the port city of Odessa the Southern capital of Ukraine? If so, how far would he be willing to go? And at what point does this ‘white war’ become everyone's fight?

The plight of the black children in Ukraine is largely unknown. Efforts are being made to track down Olga Nenya and possibly offer assistance to her and other black orphans, those in her care, and those in other orphanages. As of yet, these efforts appear to have been unsuccessful. While the world remembers and acknowledges the purity and innocence of babies and children, while it rallies around white Ukraine to ensure their safety, black children are invisible. Innocent Ukrainian black children are, still to this day, ignored by their government and are missing. Their safety, it appears, falls to those that know and care enough to attempt to find out what is happening to them in an environment which does not acknowledge their existence. 

By Dr Cheryl Diane Parkinson